The cornerstones of warehouse outsourcing are price, quality and speed, but the keys to real success lie in effective and close cooperation.
Does the company providing the outsourced warehousing service know what it is doing? Will they answer the phone and be reachable? Can I trust them to listen to us and work together to find solutions to our problems?
When a company is considering outsourcing a warehouse, the biggest questions are related to trust and interaction, says Antti Wikström, Director of Contract Logistics at Posti.
– I do not think that operating methods or systems are as much of a concern as whether we can build a cooperation relationship that is constantly developed and where problems are actively solved, says Wikström.
According to Wikström, outsourcing the warehouse is a business of trust – even though the partner takes care of the warehouse, the products stored are still the property of the customer company, which it entrusts to its partner.
Price, quality and speed as the basis of logistics
Posti offers high-quality warehouse outsourcing in Finland as well as in the Nordic and Baltic countries. As the largest logistics operator in the market, Posti Group has experience in different industries, a huge scalability for warehouse services and the entire logistics supply chain, as well as a wide range of logistics services and solutions.
– We have 400,000 pallet places in Finland and almost another one in Sweden. We can also make joint Nordic solutions, Wikström says.
As a large operator, Posti is able to respond to price competition by offering space efficiency. For example, the Sipoo warehouse opened in 2022 and the Järvenpää warehouse, which will be completed next year, offer modern and responsible warehousing along good transport connections. When completed, the Järvenpää warehouse will become the largest warehouse unit on the logistics market.
– Next, let's start planning indoor work. Now is a good time to influence what kind of warehouse we plan so that it fits the needs of your company, Wikström encourages.
Posti develops the digitalization of production and resource planning together with customers, for example, with new warehouse management systems, which further improves quality. Customer satisfaction is also an important measure of quality.
– We have very good customer satisfaction and there is little change in the current customers. The persistence and customer satisfaction of existing customers is top-notch, which for its part reflects the quality level, Wikström adds.
Improving the efficiency of the supply chain also requires cooperation, from warehouse to transport. Posti managed to speed up the delivery chain of one customer by 24 hours and the share of deliveries on the following day was increased by 30%.
A long-term partnership is at the core
The most important benefits of an outsourced warehouse can be found, for example, in the scalability of the service and the flexible resourcing of personnel, but real successes are built through effective and close cooperation. Wikström underlines that warehouse outsourcing is a joint project between the company and the logistics partner, based on long-term partnership and active and continuous development.
– Outsourcing does not mean that the warehouse is outsourced somewhere far away without a name, a face and a phone number – without a person to help. On the contrary, sometimes logistics challenges can be even easier to go through with an external partner than internally.
Effective cooperation requires experience, a professional approach and a mutual willingness to develop logistics and thereby improve business efficiency.
– We are here because we want the customer to succeed. When we build a trusting relationship where we are able to go through things openly, we also succeed together, Wikström sums up.
Flexibility, quality, efficiency and growth potential through warehouse outsourcing!
